Jensen Huang and Euisun Chung Prepare for Second Meeting on Autonomous Vehicles and Robotics

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, poses for a photo during a meeting with Euisun Chung, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, and Lee Jae-Yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, at a chicken restaurant in Samsung-dong, Seoul, on October 30 last year. [Photo=Yonhap News]

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, is visiting South Korea, and Hyundai Motor Group is closely monitoring the situation as they prepare for a potential second meeting with him. Most of Hyundai's future business ventures, including autonomous vehicles, humanoid robots, and artificial intelligence (AI), are closely linked to NVIDIA's technology, making this meeting potentially impactful.

According to industry sources, Euisun Chung will not attend the upcoming meeting with Huang on June 5, where SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, and Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin will meet with the CEO at a barbecue restaurant near Hongdae in Seoul.

However, there is a strong expectation that Huang will meet with Chung at Hyundai's headquarters in Yangjae after visiting the AI Research Institute and Robotics Laboratory at Seoul National University on June 8. If this meeting occurs, it will mark their second encounter since last year's initial meeting.

The connection between Chung and Huang dates back to the APEC summit last year when Huang visited South Korea and solidified their partnership over a meal at a chicken restaurant in Samsung-dong with Chung and Lee Jae-Yong.

Since the so-called "Kkanbu meeting," industry observers have noted an acceleration in collaboration between Hyundai Motor Group and NVIDIA. This partnership led to Hyundai receiving 50,000 units of NVIDIA's Blackwell GPUs, which are being utilized to innovate in autonomous vehicles, AI data centers, and robotics.

Among Hyundai's future projects, autonomous driving technology is the most closely tied to NVIDIA. The company is developing a universal platform capable of supporting autonomous driving from Level 2+ to Level 4, based on NVIDIA's Drive Hyperion platform.

To facilitate this, Hyundai has appointed Park Min-woo, a former NVIDIA executive, as the head of its AVP division. Last month, the company also hired Lee Hee-seok, another former NVIDIA employee, to further advance the commercialization of autonomous driving technology.

Hyundai's robotics initiatives are also expected to benefit directly from this collaboration. Its subsidiary, Boston Dynamics, is equipping its humanoid robot, Atlas, with NVIDIA's Jetson Thor AI computing platform. The two companies are working together to develop a robotics foundation model that enables robots to understand and mimic human language and actions without programming.

A Hyundai official stated, "We are closely watching the news of Jensen Huang's visit to Korea," but added, "It has not yet been determined whether a meeting between the two chairmen will take place."

* This article has been translated by AI.

Oh Jooseok farbrother@ajunews.com